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Solid materials whose atoms are arranged in a well-ordered crystalline structure are usually better conductors of electricity than randomly structured, or amorphous, solids. Recently, however, ASTAR researchers found that iron-tellurium (FeTe) breaks this rule, displaying higher conductivity, and optical reflectivity, in the amorphous phase.read more

The atoms that make up metallic glasses lack the orderly lattice structure present in most other crystalline solids. Researchers have now shown that within randomly packed clusters of atoms, a fractal pattern emerges at the scale of...

In solid materials with regular atomic structures, figuring out weak points where the material will break under stress is relatively easy. But for disordered solids, like glass or sand, their disordered nature makes such predictions...

Rewritable CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray discs owe their existence to phase-change materials, those materials that change their internal order when heated and whose structures can be switched back and forth between their crystalline and amo...

Crystals are defined by their repeating, symmetrical patterns and long-range order. Unlike amorphous materials, in which atoms are randomly packed together, the atoms in a crystal are arranged in a predictable way. Quasicrystals are...